RUTHERFORD VOLUNTEER
FIRE DEPARTMENT

"Leading the way for volunteer departments in Rutherford County"


HISTORY OF THE RUTHERFORD VFD, INC.

Back in 1971, the Rutherford County Civil Defense started the fire protection in Rutherford County. Under Joe McCluskey, Director of Operations, they started extrication in 1977 with the Rutherford County Rescue Squad. They had to swap every other month with the Rescue Squad to share the extrications in the county.

The Rutherford County Civil Defense ran out of the basement of the old armory and had a station on Bradyville at the corner of Minerva. It was an old Exxon gas station. In 1978 the new fire station was built at 910 Old Salem Road.

In order to charge for fire calls, the Civil Defense split in 1981 starting the Rutherford County Fire Department and the Rutherford County Emergency Management Agency. At the time of this split John Wiseman was the new fire chief and Charles Phipps was Director of Operations of the EMA.

John Wiseman organized the Rutherford County Fire Chief's Association when the first three fire departments were Lascassass, Christiana, and Rutherford. The Chiefs Association divided the county into fire districts.

In 1982 Charles Phipps took over as Fire Chief. Rutherford was the first department to use three-inch hose in Rutherford County.

1983-1984 Chief JT Jones ran the department.

Chief David Meadow took over in 1983 and ran the department until 1997.

Chief Brad Cambell was elected in 1991 and served for six months.

In 1993 the Rutherford County Volunteer Fire Department started in the Tennessee State Training Commission initiated by Training Officer Terry Logan.

In 1995 we started the Boy Scout Explorer Post 1100.

In 1997 the fire department had to move out of the station at 910 Old Salem because the county owned the building and the Rutherford County Emergency Medical Service took it over.

In 1997 Chief Craig McBride took over and reorganized the department into the Rutherford Volunteer Fire Department, Inc. and moved the station to its current location at 810 Old Salem Road. Chief Craig McBride is still the current chief and under his administration we dropped from a ISO class 9 to an ISO class 5 in 2006.

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Copyright© 2007 Tom F. Naff, Jr., All Rights Reserved

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